


Ship in a Bottle

by rivendellrose



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 17:44:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11385204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivendellrose/pseuds/rivendellrose
Summary: Shran really doesn't understand Humans. Some days, he's not even sure he wants to.





	Ship in a Bottle

Shran stared at Archer -- a man who, much against his own better judgement and personal best interest, he had come to consider his friend, but also a man he was regularly reminded was as alien as anyone could possibly be, and entirely, inexplicably obsessed with things that made no sense at all. “Why.”

Archer held up the bottle, grinning stupidly at the tiny ship, complete with sails and rigging, inside it. “Why not?”

“No, seriously, Archer. Why.” When this entirely reasonable protest failed to dampen Archer’s enthusiasm or elicit any kind of reasonable explanation, Shran jabbed a finger at the thing and continued, speaking slowly and clearly, as he would to someone who was more than a bit mentally deficient and perhaps slightly hard of hearing. “Why would you put a model of a ship... specifically a ship that your ship is named after, inside a bottle?”

“Partly because it’s a neat way to show off a model ship--”

“And waste a perfectly good bottle?” Shran suggested.

“And also,” Archer continued, shooting Shran an annoyed look from under his eyebrows, “because it’s a bit of a mechanical puzzle. People are meant to wonder how you built the thing inside that bottle.”

“Because you actually made the bottle around the ship?”

“No, because you make the ship outside the bottle, with the masts rigged so that after you’ve slipped the ship inside you can raise up the masts by pulling a string that’s attached to them.”

“So... it’s a trick.”

“Sort of.” Archer’s eyebrows drew together slightly, and he squinted a little bit down at the bottle. “But the trick isn’t really the point.”

“But you just said...”

“Sure, people are meant to wonder. But just about everyone knows how it’s really done, nowadays. It’s a holdover from years and years ago, when they were curiosities that most people didn’t really understand. And even if you do know the trick, the construction is still an impressive skill. There’s a lot of fiddly little bits in a tiny ship like that. It takes a long time to make.”

Shran sighed. “So you do it because it’s supposed to be impossible, but it’s not impossible, it just takes a very long time and a lot of work that you could devote to something else.”

“Exactly.” Archer grinned. 

“Pink-skin...” Shran reached out and clapped Archer’s shoulder, squeezing it just slightly. “If you people devoted half the attention you spend on pointless amusements and ridiculous hobbies onto actually advancing your species’ status in the quadrant, you really would be a force to be reckoned with.”


End file.
